Tokyo, Jan. 20 (Reuters): The Japan branch of a group that believes the human race was created by aliens said today that the sect’s third cloned infant — a Japanese — was expected to be born soon.

An official for the Japan Raelian Movement said he thought it would be easy to confirm the cloning of the Japanese baby, created from cells of a two-year-old boy who died in an accident more than a year ago.

“I think it would be good if a Japanese baby turns out to be the first confirmed case of cloning,” Hideaki Numakura, representative of the Japan Raelian Movement, told Reuters Television in an interview.

The sect’s claim to have created two human clones have been widely dismissed by the scientific community, with many leading scientists branding it a hoax.

Earlier, another member of the Japan Raelian Movement said the group would hold a news conference on Thursday in Florida to announce the birth.

Numakura did not say exactly where the birth would take place other than to say it would be overseas because Japanese law prohibits human cloning.

A Japanese representative of the Raelians movement said he had been told by the sect-linked firm Clonaid that the baby would be born at a secret location.